Separation And Integration:Blood-ties,Interests And Lineage Governance

Human society develops under the contradiction of "seperation" and "integration".On one hand,individuals can not live without group because individuals in the community can get the tools to fully develop themselves.On the other hand,interests is the driving force to society development,and the individual development is the base for group development.Marx and Engels argue that "separation"under the private ownership must lead to the interests devision,even further interests conflicts.Only intervention of the state can effectively coordinate and sustain the "integration".However,through a case study,this thesis indicates that traditional lineage can balance the "separation" and "integration"through self-governance with limited intervention from the government.This thesis adopts "condition-pattern" analysis framework to investigate the relations between the form of lineage society and governance model,and further understand what the lineage rely on to govern and the conditions for it.The thesis develops the arguments in two aspects.First is research on the forms of lineage societies.It analyzes the relations between households and the lineage to examine the historical factors of Chinese lineage society.Secondly,it analyzes the governance patterns of the lineage.To be concrete,whether the lineage has interests differentiation and what do the lineage rely on to govern when facing the differentiation.In one sentence,under the form of lineage society,whether "separation" exists and what patterns are adopted to sustain the "integration".The case study leads to following conclusions.Firstly,transformation from clan society to household society is a lengthy and iterative process,rather than a simply bloming out and replication.After the breakup of clan society,households still have the problem of "no strength without integration" when facing the challegn of nature and social competition.Lineage in traditional Chinese society is one form of "integration" organized through consanguinity and interests.Secondly,the key factor to balace the "separation" and "integration" is the effective intervention of governace.Households are the components of lineage and "no dynamics without separation".Facing the interests differentiation caused by "separation",govemace is needed to control the differentiation within certain degree to sustain the "integration".Thirdly,governance not only includes the power of the state,also including the self-governace of society.The balance of "separation" and "integration"within lineage does not result from the state's coordination,but from the self-coordination.Lastly,the realization of self-governance need certain social conditions,like within certain units and common interests.Through the study of forms and governance in traditional Chinese lineage society,this thesis suggests self-governance of society is important part and complication of state governance.Traditional lineage is one community form constructed by the households.The core spirit is to promote the households' competitive power through the integration and coordination of their interests.The influence of lineage is getting weak in contempory society,but the household is still the essential institution of Chinese society.Households are still organizing in different forms to achieve self-integration to avoid totally atomized.Hence,with the limited state's capacity,reasonably building governance units,constructing common interests can help to active the self-governance function and maintain social harmony and stability.